“Naive”
from the album Inside In/Inside Out
2006
On their debut album Inside In/Inside Out (out in the U.S. in October), Brighton band the Kooks demonstrate a real potential for greatness. That’s because these young Brits have two crucial things going for them: a wealth of ideas and an awareness of their place in their musical lineage. Which is why it’s probably so appropriate that Inside In/Inside Out was recorded at the Kinks’ Ray Davies’ own studio — Kooks frontman Luke Pritchard, like Davies, seems to have a knack for churning out catchy guitar-pop nuggets. So, after the brief and mellow intro of “Seaside,” the album really kicks in to grab the listener by the ears, with each song better than the previous. “Sofa Song” is a strumming, singalong bounce, but “Eddie’s Gun” is a rough-around-the-edges jangly rocker, and “Ooh La” is a mellow and melodic stroll, all building up to the downright funky tracks like “Matchbox” and “Naive.“ And so it continues, through 14 songs, propelled by Pritchard’s hiccupping vocal delivery and Hugh Harris’s rather excellent guitar playing. The Kooks had a lot of hype prior to the release of Inside In/Inside Out; rather impressively, they’ve more than managed to live up to it.